2022 Biopharma Innovation Support Initiative

Apply now to the 2022 Biopharma Innovation Support Initiative

The Biopharma Innovation Support Initiative is an industry support program, lowering the barriers for technology adoption of biopharma laboratories, to accelerate innovation in research and therapy development. Biopharma companies involved in drug development, such as immunotherapies, face the critical challenge of stratifying patient populations to optimize patient outcomes and streamline their clinical trials. Identifying, validating and testing biomarkers with good predictive value requires phenotyping of tissue samples from different patient populations and disease states, in order to find stratification criteria and biomarker signatures with clinical relevance.

The Initiative is a unique opportunity for biopharma laboratories to adopt spatial biology technology, workflows and protocols with minimal barriers for access and maximal expert support for implementation. Two participants will be selected as winners, to be empowered by Lunaphore to integrate and leverage spatial biology capabilities. Furthermore, every single qualifying applicant will receive as well a Discount Package for participation.

If you would like to request the signature of a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) before submission, click here and send us your NDA template. We will reply with the signed NDA within 3 days.

Scroll down to learn more about the technology, Rules for Participation and Prize Packages.

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Winners: Prize Package

Phase A: Sample Testing Project

A sample testing project will be performed at Lunaphore’s lab with the objective of evaluating the performance of the COMET™ system for the participant’s chosen application. Performing this project does not constitute any commitment to pursue technology acquisition and/or the following Prize Package phases. The turnaround of this project will be 4 weeks. The project must be chosen among one of the two following options:

Option 1: 12-plex from Lunaphore’s list of markers + 2 new markers of participant’s choice, on participant’s tissue of choice, which must be a human, FFPE sample. Markers must have been previously validated and used at participant’s lab.
Option 2: 20-plex from Lunaphore’s list of markers on participant’s tissue of choice, which must be a human, FFPE sample.

Phase B: Discount Package

This Discount Package is subject to the acquisition of a COMET™ instrument. Following the sample testing project, if the participant wants to move forward with an instrument acquisition, a discount package is applied as part of the Prize Package, including all of the following:

20% discount on the cost of the COMET™ instrument if the purchase order is placed in 2022; or 10% discount if the purchase order is placed in 2023.
10% discount on the COMET™ consumable chips for 1 year.
All protocols developed during the sample testing project will be shared for free.

Phase C: Implementation Support Package

This Support Package is subject to instrument acquisition, and provided at the time of COMET™ installation. This phase of the Prize Package focuses on providing participants with a comprehensive support service to transfer the technology, protocols and workflow implementation to the participant’s lab:

Hands-on training and protocol implementation will be provided on-site by Lunaphore’s scientists at the participant’s lab, to seamlessly pick up where Phase B finished, and support the setup of experiments in the participant’s workflow.
Hands-on support will be provided to implement protocols developed during the sample testing project or other protocols of choice.

All other other participants: Prize Package

Access Lab discount

A 50% discount voucher on any Access Lab standard service will be provided to all participants meeting the aforementioned requirements. The discount will have a maximum package value of CHF 25,000 (≈ 24,000 EUR), if the order is placed in 2022 or 2023.

Instrument discount

A 5% discount voucher on the COMET™ instrument if the order is placed in 2022 or 2023.

Translational technology requirements

Rapid assay development

The ability to develop complex protocols in a matter of days or weeks can provide a very significant acceleration in drug development and innovation.

High-dimensional hyperplex analysis

In biomarker discovery, novel predictive biomarker signatures are searched by testing a high number of biomarkers.

High-throughput automation

Fully automated workflows are a must to accelerate biomarker testing and clinical trials when processing high numbers of samples from different patient populations.

Excellent quality and reproducibility

Maximizing standarized protocols and minimizing human intervention are both critical for success.

Rules for the Biopharma Innovation Support Initiative

Participation and timelines

Application: Submission of a request for economic and process support for a COMET™ platform acquisition.
Submission deadline: July 1, 2022
Private winner announcement: July 15, 2022 (winners of the Initiative will be announced privately to preserve confidentiality)

Confidentiality

All form submission content and participation to this Initiative will be kept confidential unless expressed otherwise by participant, with the exception of the winners’ names, titles, companies, which will be shared among the participants only.

Requirements

Applicant laboratories must meet the following requirements:

Audience: Participants must be a biopharma company of any size located with a laboratory based in US or Europe.
Applications of interest: Participants must be interested in performing hyperplex spatial analysis with 10-40 protein biomarkers on a single tissue sample.
Technology acquisition intent: Companies must have a clear intent of acquiring spatial biology capabilities within the next 2 years. This submission does not constitute any commitment to such endeavour.
Submission form: All fields in the form must be filled in to qualify for the Initiative.

Terms and Conditions

Visit this link to view the Terms and Conditions integrated in the submission of this Initiative.